“There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”
— ROBERT MUELLER, in a letter to Trump attorney general Bill Barr.
The WaPo reports tonight that Robert Mueller wrote a letter to Bill Barr, in which the special counsel told Trump's handpicked attorney general his charm offensive in advance of the redacted report's release failed to capture the true 'context, nature, and substance' of the report's contents.
In his letter, Mueller made an important demand to Barr: release the 448-page report’s introductions and executive summaries. Mueller even offered suggested redactions, Justice Department officials told the Washington Post.
Mueller is effectively saying he was betrayed by Barr.
Barr lied.
From the Washington Post's Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky:
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III wrote a letter in late March complaining to Attorney General William P. Barr that a four-page memo to Congress describing the principal conclusions of the investigation into President Trump “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of Mueller’s work, according to a copy of the letter reviewed Tuesday by The Washington Post.
At the time the letter was sent on March 27, Barr had announced that Mueller had not found a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian officials seeking to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Barr also said Mueller had not reached a conclusion about whether Trump had tried to obstruct justice, but Barr reviewed the evidence and found it insufficient to support such a charge.
Days after Barr’s announcement, Mueller wrote a previously unknown private letter to the Justice Department, which revealed a degree of dissatisfaction with the public discussion of Mueller’s work that shocked senior Justice Department officials, according to people familiar with the discussions.
“The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions,” Mueller wrote. “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”
Read the rest: Mueller complained that Barr’s letter did not capture ‘context’ of Trump probe [washingtonpost.com]
Moments after the WaPo piece hit the wires, a parallel and confirming report came out in the New York Times, citing as sources “the Justice Department and three people with direct knowledge of the communication between the two men.” Read more: Mueller Objected to Barr’s Description of Russia Investigation’s Findings [nytimes.com]
